Publish your livestream
Publishing lets you stream live sermon content directly through Church Center, so congregants can watch on the web or in the app. Read on to get set up and then learn what to do each week to publish a live episode.
Important
You must be subscribed to the Publishing Premium plan to access sermons and livestreaming.
Publishing supports live embed codes and share links from the following platforms:
Playlist embed codes and HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) links are not supported.
Initial setup
Before you can go live each week, set up your channel's livestream settings. These settings apply to every episode on the channel, so you only need to do this once.
Enable watch live on your channel
Select Content from the top navigation in Publishing.
Select the Sermons tab.
Select your channel.
Select the Settings tab.
Scroll down to the Formats section.
Select the Watch live checkbox.
Update watch live time and chat settings
Add your default start times in the Default availability section to set the times your live event takes place each week. You can change the times for a specific week on the episode page.
Add minutes to the Countdown timer in the Watch live section to start the stream a set number of minutes before the episode's start time.
Set the length of time from the episode's start time that the Watch now link shows on the channel's public page.
Enable chat during a live sermon for people logged in to Church Center. Members of groups can chat with each other if their group has chat enabled. Anyone who is logged in can participate in the general chat. A new conversation is created just for this episode and cannot be accessed later.
Important
To enable general or group chat during a live video, you must have a subscription to Planning Center Groups, even if your subscription is at the free level.
Select My livestream URL stays the same from week to week if your streaming provider allows you to use the same embed code for all streaming events, which is the recommended setup. Add the default code as the default livestream link for all episodes in the channel. If not, leave this field blank and input a livestream embed code in each episode's settings.
Add default links
Add links to your channel that will be accessible when viewing any episode from that channel.
Scroll down to the Default links section of the channel's Settings tab.
Select the Add dropdown to add a custom link. This can be an existing People form, a Giving Fund, an external URL, or an Order of Service if you have a connected Services service type.
Select the default or custom icon for your link.
Add a title.
Select your form, fund, Order of Service, or add your external URL.
Select Save.
Drag the six-dot icon on the left to reorder the links. The link at the top will be the Featured link on live episodes.
Select the ✏️ edit icon to edit a link, or the 🗑️ delete icon to remove it.
Tip
Newly added links only show on episodes created after the links were added.
Weekly workflow
Each week, create an episode and add your livestream link for that service.
Add an episode to your channel.
Go to the Media and resources tab on that episode's page.
In the Watch live section, choose your episode's source:
Default livestream URL: Uses the embed code you set in the channel settings. No additional action needed.
Time-specific livestream URLs: Add an embed code for each service time. Use this option if your streaming provider generates a new link for each event (such as YouTube).
Select Manage times to confirm or adjust the episode's start times.
For more detail on these steps, check out set up episodes for live viewing.
Troubleshooting
Here are a few common issues and their fixes.
Publishing needs a specific embed format to display video content in Church Center — it can't use redirect links. When you paste a link, Publishing automatically converts it to the correct embed format.
If the link you're pasting doesn't convert correctly, check that it's a direct share or embed link from your streaming provider, and not a playlist or redirect URL.
This usually means Publishing is trying to embed a URL that doesn't resolve to embeddable content. For YouTube, the persistent channel link redirects to the current live video in a browser, but that redirect can't be embedded directly.
To fix this, use time-specific embed codes for YouTube livestreams.
Check the privacy settings on your stream. If your video is set to private or unlisted on your streaming platform, you may still be able to view it because you're logged in to that platform in your browser.
To fix this, set the stream to Public on your streaming provider before the service starts.